My Content
Membership has its privileges! Sign up or sign in to gain full access to both All About Jazz and Jazz Near You. Learn more.
Jazz Articles | Future
David Torn: Making Records, Film Composition, and Working With David Bowie
Experimental guitarist, looper, songwriter, improviser, session guitarist, film composer, record producer, mixer...David Torn is all of those things. He is constantly on the move, looking forward to the next thing. He was last interviewed for All About Jazz in 2007 ("David Torn: A Lifetime Of Improvisation In Non-Improvisational Settings“). Our conversation mostly ranged over his many activities in the ten years since then. Asked about researching his playing history, and the Wikipedia article in particular: The ...
read moreThe Dazzling Alexis Cole
Jazz singer Alexis Cole's career has been anything but conventional. She's done residencies in far-flung places like Ecuador, India, and Japan. She fronted the Army's big band for several years as a soldier herself. And now she's a faculty member in the jazz program at SUNY Purchase. With a dozen critically acclaimed albums under her belt, some big awards on her shelf, and more good stuff to come, Alexis distinguishes herself a leader in the ever-evolving world of vocal jazz. ...
read moreSaturday at the Monterey Jazz Festival
Saturday at the Monterey Jazz Festival featured excellent performances by some of the lesser known artists, fine concerts by headliners and a great after-hour jam sessions. It was another splendid day with much great music. My day at the fest started out mid-afternoon with a fine performance by accomplished trumpeter Sean Jones leading a quartet that included the remarkable piano playing of Victor Gould. The “Mississippi Blues Child-Mr. Sipp" thrilled an audience with some scorching blues on the Garden Stage. ...
read moreEnrico Rava and Tomasz Stanko: Elective Affinities
Enrico Rava and Tomasz Stanko have recently launched an ECM super-group with which in July they toured all over Europe, performing in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Romania, as well as in their native countries, Italy and Poland. All About Jazz seized the opportunity to ask the two European trumpet masters to set aside some time during their hectic tour and interview each-other, in the spirit of the “Musician 2 Musician" column. What follows is the transcription of their ...
read moreOctober 2017: Grover Washington Jr, Bud Powell and Ferit Odman
Welcome to our monthly look at what's happening on the Jazz Bastard podcast! Since December 2012, Mike Caldwell and I have gotten together every fortnight to discuss jazz albums in an irreverent, irascible, and engaged manner. Some shows focus on a theme or an individual artist, while others just discuss what's been on the boys' playlists recently. We cover recordings from the whole history of the music as well as new releases. Instrumental, vocal, the occasional cross-over or fusion record--they're ...
read moreSting at Boris Trajkovski Sports Hall in Skopje, Macedonia
Sting Boris Trajkovski Sports Hall Skopje, Macedonia October 15, 2017 The “Boris Trajkovski" sports hall in Skopje witnessed a show as great as any in his illustrious career from the legendary musician and songwriter. Nevertheless, the attentive, full-capacity crowd who turned out witnessed something special. The gig in Skopje was next to last in Sting's world tour which began back in February. There was a tension building in the air with a ...
read moreKamasi Washington: Harmony of Difference
Being lauded as the “saviour of jazz" would weigh heavy on the shoulders of any young artist, even one so confident as to release a 170 minute treble CD as their 2015 debut. Yet Kamasi Washington pulled it off on the appropriately titled The Epic, with its ambitious, eclectic subject matter and surface similarities to spiritual jazz greats like Pharoah Sanders. Those that stuck with it were rewarded with an album that seemed to inhabit its own niche or world, ...
read moreDusan Jevtovic / Vasil Hadzimanov / Asaf Sirkis: No Answer
Serbian guitarist Dusan Jevtovic debuted on Moonjune Records with a mix of hard rock and thrash metal. His Am I Walking Wrong? (2014) featured the conventional bass and drums rhythm section and demonstrated the guitarist's broad range. With No Answer the formation is far less traditional as fellow Serbian and pianist/keyboardist Vasil Hadzimanov and Israeli drummer Asaf Sirkis skirt around the bass-less trio with taut performances that again defy genre identification.In his sophomore outing as a leader, Jevtovic ...
read moreRudresh Mahanthappa: Agrima
The music of India is ancient, centuries old. The saxophone is new, with a history of less than a hundred years. Ditto for the “electric" guitar. First generation Indian-American alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa marries the old and new in his music, on his most compelling recording to date, Agrima, featuring his Indo-Pak Coalition, featuring “electric" guitarist Rez Abbasi and tabla-ist/drummer Dan Weiss. Mahanthappa--who now chairs the jazz department at Princeton University--rode to a higher profile via pianist Vijay ...
read more
